The first step students take towards participating in scholarly conversations (in both spoken and written forms) is reading scholarly, including literary, texts. Each of these sections is underwritten by the assumption that texts do not simply inform students but that students also inform the texts, that is, they bring their own experiences, assumptions, fears and resistances to the texts. Acts of interpretation are always two-way (at least) streets. These sections, thus, offer suggestions that you can adapt to encourage students in the creative as well as intellectual activity of reading as, indeed, a first step toward writing and speaking.